Chapter 499 Changes in the Chinese Comics Industry
"Okay, Lin Sheng and I have also collaborated before. We have tried to send comics based on Chinese mythology to Chinatown in the United States." Zhang Zhiyuan replied.
Yang Wendong asked: "What about the results?"
Yang Wendong generally doesn't know the following small things about the company. Nowadays, he only knows about the internal management model of Changxing Group, such as some big investments, big strategic directions or new businesses.
Zhang Zhiyuan said awkwardly: "The results are not very good. Our comics are quite famous in Chinatown or Chinese areas in the United States, but these groups are too scattered. This business can be done, but we are extremely dependent on channels;
Therefore, we basically send comic books and toy stickers here, and then hand them over to some local channel partners, and then we ignore them. The profit is somewhat, but it is far worse than that in Asia. ”
"If you can sell it directly, then sell it. There will be no loss to us." Yang Wendong nodded and said: "With the scattered Chinese people, it is not cost-effective to control this channel. Let's maintain the cooperation model like this."
It’s good to be able to control channels when doing business, but you also have to be selective. It’s impossible to control every channel in the world. No matter how strong your capital is, it’s good to be able to seize the main channels.
For some small countries, small places, local xenophobic forces, or such decentralized markets, there is no need to go through all the trouble yourself. Just find a dealer. You only sell things yourself and don’t care about anything else. This is not just for comics, but the same logic applies to other industries. , even Toyota in its previous life did not fully control the Southeast Asian market.
"Okay." Zhang Zhiyuan added: "But "Peppa Pig" has no cultural restrictions. If it can achieve the same results in the United States as in the United Kingdom, then our company will open up the American market."
"I hope so too." Yang Wendong also said: "If it succeeds, it will play a big role in the layout of my other industries in the United States in the future."
Now it is almost the 1970s, and he has almost prepared the capital. With the rapid development of the electronics industry, he will also focus on investing in the home appliance and other industrial markets in the future, which requires endorsements.
In the future, if Li Xiaolong becomes popular by himself, he will be able to endorse his normal products, and various animation characters can also open up the market for children's electronic products, especially games;
Of course, the character of Peppa Pig is too biased towards young children, so it may not be suitable for him, but this is the first part of his animation to enter the European and American markets. As long as he has cooperated with overseas TV stations and derivatives channels through this part, then It will be much more convenient if there are other animations in the future.
Zhang Zhiyuan also said: "Yes, Wei Sheng also approached me. He said that they wanted to try making learning stationery, and then asked for authorization for our stickers, and I gave it to them."
"Making stationery? This is an idea. Changxing Industrial really needs to do new business now." Yang Wendong nodded and said.
Changxing Industrial has actually been resting on its laurels in the past few years, because as the founder, he has no good gadget ideas. Fortunately, it has successfully established an industrial chain advantage, at least in terms of plastics, paper and related products, and its scale It's getting bigger.
It is actually enough to develop in this model. After all, there is only one global traveler. Other companies have developed normally on their own from small to large, and Changxing Industrial, which has financial advantages, can also do it.
Therefore, for Changxing Industrial, Yang Wendong also wanted to let this giant ship develop on its own and find a way out. It was impossible to rely on him as the boss all his life. After entering the 1970s, his focus would also be on the development of the electronics industry and the expansion of global capital.
Zhang Zhiyuan smiled and said: 'Yes, with the pencil case with stickers, there are no other advantages, but it is more expensive and the sales volume is also very good. ’
"Of course, how else do you think Disney makes money?" Yang Wendong asked again: "What are the results of the comics you created yourself?"
In addition to their own creativity and requirements, the several manufacturing industries of the Changxing Group will also have their own products. However, it is impossible to compare with Yang Wendong, who has produced hits that have been proven by the market in his previous life. Creativity, but just because there is a hit product, your company cannot stop making money on its own.
Wu Hailin, who is in charge of content, said: "Yang Sheng, in the past few years, we have launched more than 20 comics ourselves. These comics are all sold together with Changxing Comics. The market feedback has been high and low, and some have begun to develop peripheral derivatives. Among them, .”
Yang Wendong also listened attentively. After Wu Hailin finished speaking, he said: "Okay, continue to maintain the creative spirit. You can continue to poach people from the Chinese in Southeast Asia, and Japan too;
Or there are some capable people who don’t want to come to Hong Kong. According to the cooperation model, we can ask them to create comic manuscripts and publish them in our newspapers, and we will pay them. ”
When it comes to cultural creation, it is difficult for a company to create all its own creations. Even in Japan and the United States, large comic newspapers cooperate with many third parties;
For companies like Marvel and DC that support their entire teams themselves, the risk is actually very high. These two companies have changed owners several times over the years and have almost gone bankrupt. However, in Japan, most of them are based on cooperation.
"This kind of cooperation is no problem, but how to handle copyright?" Zhang Zhiyuan asked.
Yang Wendong said: "If there are some achievements, copyright cooperation can be negotiated. We have complete production capabilities for various derivatives in Hong Kong and some channel launch capabilities in Southeast Asia and even Japan;
Through cooperation, they can maximize their benefits, and for us, with the help of these different copyrights, we can also expand our channel operation capabilities. ”
Like Chang Hsing Industrial, I don’t have a deep memory of many comics, and many of them are not suitable for production by Hong Kong comic companies. Therefore, if the comic business wants to become bigger and stronger, it cannot just rely on this boss, but must have its own business capabilities. .
"Okay, I understand." Zhang Zhiyuan replied.
"Remember to maintain mutual benefit, content creators must have enough income, then the greater our profits will be in the end." Yang Wendong added. Wu Hailin smiled and said: "Yang Sheng, we understand this."
"Okay, if you want to collaborate with other people on comics later, please let me know and I can take a look." Yang Wendong nodded and said.
I have traveled through time for ten years. Although I will also use the original historical development to seek benefits, I will never rely solely on these. One is that my actions will inevitably cause a butterfly effect. The second is that I must change something for the better. direction.
The Chinese comics industry has almost no achievements in this century. The few comics in Hong Kong in history can only be said to be okay, but they are far behind compared with Japan;
As a time traveler, he can at most plagiarize a few comics from his previous life. But if he wants the entire Chinese comics industry to explode, he must rely on enough Chinese people with the ability in this area. What he needs to do is to use large capital to expand the entire market. , make a big cake.
Once the cake gets bigger, many people in the comics industry, whether they are content creators or painters, will have enough benefits to create many superior talents.
This is the value of capital and finance. You may not be able to create wealth yourself, but you can guide others in the entire society to create value. However, in reality, few financial investors have the patience to spend many years running the industry. It’s not as fast as cutting leeks
Zhang Zhiyuan agreed: "No problem."
Yang Wendong asked again: "How is the training of comic talents? I remember you also opened a training class, right?"
Zhang Zhiyuan said: "Yes, we have found more than 100 young people from Hong Kong or young Chinese from Southeast Asia who are talented in painting, and they have been trained in Hong Kong. It has only taken half a year. According to the plan, the training will take two years; < br>
After the time is up, we will allocate positions according to their abilities. These people are quite talented. When they graduate one after another, our talent shortage problem can be alleviated. ”
"Two years, the training cost is high enough." Yang Wendong said.
Zhang Zhiyuan replied: "Actually, it's okay. You can basically tell your level in the first half of the year. If you are very poor, you will have to leave. The remaining ones can also study and help us with some simple work;
All we have to pay is accommodation, basic food and a small amount of their living expenses. Those who can receive bonuses are those who have strong painting skills and save us workload. ”
"Okay." Yang Wendong thought for a moment and then said: "A lot of people have come from the mainland recently, and some of them may also have talent for painting. You can also check it out. If there are suitable ones, you can recruit them. In this regard, Old Wu, you should Know how to do it.”
Wu Hailin was a refugee who was found by Yang Wendong a few years ago. If Changxing Comics hadn't needed such talents, then even if he hadn't starved to death, he would probably be driving screws in a factory.
Wu Hailin nodded and said: "I know. In fact, I have arranged people to investigate, but they are scattered very widely and are not easy to find."
"It's good to find something." Yang Wendong added: "Now that cooperation with the country is broken, we have to rely on ourselves for everything. The manpower must be restored as soon as possible."
In the past two years, even China Resources' cooperation with Changxing Group has not been very smooth, and products are often out of stock. This has forced Watsons, Changxing Industries, etc. to find overseas suppliers.
The same is naturally true for Changxing Culture. In the past, many cartoons were produced by the Shanghai Art Film Factory in the mainland. Now they are suddenly unable to cooperate, which has caused the workload in Hong Kong to skyrocket. Many animators have to work a lot of overtime. In order to meet the needs of cartoons.
But there is no other way at the moment. Even if we recruit people from overseas, it will be difficult to fill such a large vacancy. The bottom line is that there are too few people in Hong Kong. Even though there are tens of millions of Chinese in Southeast Asia, there was no comics industry before. There are also few talents in this area.
"Okay, let's get it done as soon as possible on the TV station in the United States." Yang Wendong added: "When this thing is successful and "Peppa Pig" becomes popular in the United States, then we will also need to invest more resources to do follow-up projects. Comics, you can’t always rest on your laurels.”
If you want to be a high-quality comics platform, you must have enough ability to develop channels, so you can only look for some classic animations from previous generations.
"What kind of comics?" Wu Hailin immediately asked.
The comics produced by Changxing Comics in the past few years could not be compared to some of the boss's creativity, which he found incredible.
Yang Wendong said: "It has something to do with the story of Journey to the West, but it has been changed a lot. I will call you to discuss it at a later time. For now, you should use all your resources to ensure that "Piggy Peppa Pig" can continue to produce new ones." The more stories and animations, the better.”
"Okay." Wu Hailin didn't ask any more questions.
If it is a complex comic, it does require a lot of resources and manpower to do it. At present, the entire company is concentrating resources on "Peppa Pig" and many previous comics. Comics in Hong Kong and even Southeast Asia are There is still not enough talent.
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(End of chapter)